Protest: LBA leaders fear loss of influence in sessions court division

LBA is opposing appointment of 2 sessions judges in Lahore out of fear that it would divide LBA, undermine influence.

LAHORE:

The Lahore Bar Association is opposing the appointment of two sessions judges in Lahore out of fear that it would divide the Lahore Bar Association and undermine their influence, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The LBA claims to be the biggest bar in Asia. Its leaders say that this initiative by the Lahore High Court and the government would not facilitate the dispensation of justice and might even be counterproductive.

LBA leaders had previously said that they would not let any new sessions judge work until they were taken into confidence over the matter. They said the plan for two sessions judges was a conspiracy to divide the bar so it would lose its influence.

LBA Vice President Ghulam Abbas Sahir and General Secretary Chaudhary Saleem Ladhi said they would not allow anyone to divide Asia’s biggest bar. Ladhi said the Lahore High Court and the government planned to shift the court at Aiwan-i-Adl to a court complex at Gajjumata or Raiwind. “But we will not let that happen,” he said. He said they [LBA] had told Justice Najmul Hassan Shaikh, Justice Malik Manzoor, the LHC registrar and the district and sessions judge at a meeting at the Lahore High Court that they would not allow any experimentation at the expense of lawyers. He said they had also told them that they would not tolerate the appointment of another sessions judge in Lahore. He said they had been assured LBA that the notification would be suspended. He said there were neither rooms to accommodate more judges nor a suitable mechanism to divide the workload.

Vice President Sahir said all lawyers’ associations in the province supported the LBA on the matter. He said if the LHC and the government took them into confidence on the matter, they would discuss the proposal with representatives of all lawyers’ associations. However, he said, the division of the sessions court would not be tolerated.  He said LBA President Chaudhary Ishtiaq had not attended the meeting with the LHC judges to register the association’s protest against not being taken into confidence over the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2014.